Conventional pneumatic tires are designed to perform for relatively long periods of time. Nevertheless, such tires are each formed with a ground-engaging tread that necessarily wears down over the life of the tire. When the tread wears down to a certain level, replacement of the tire is recommended.
In addition, pneumatic tires are subject to air pressure losses due to puncture by nails and other sharp objects, temperature changes, and/or diffusion of air through the tire itself. Such air pressure losses may lead to a need to repair or replace the tire.
Traditionally, tire repair and replacement, known as tire servicing, has been performed at a commercial garage, service center or other permanent brick-and-mortar establishment. Tire servicing at this type of permanent establishment has been necessary due to the heavy-duty equipment that is needed to jack up the vehicle to remove the tire and the wheel or rim on which the tire is mounted, to extract the tire from the wheel, install a new or repaired tire on the wheel, balance the new or repaired tire and wheel, inflate the new or repaired tire, and install the new or repaired tire and wheel on the vehicle. In addition, a significant amount of storage space has been needed to maintain an inventory of tires of different types and sizes.
A disadvantage of permanent establishments is the significant time and expense associated with purchasing or leasing land and then building a permanent building on the land. Because of such time and expense, there are many geographic areas where commercial garages or service centers are not present, which is an inconvenience to users needing tire servicing.
In an attempt to address this issue, prior art service trucks were developed. These trucks were heavy-duty vehicles that included some equipment used for tire servicing and which were capable of traveling to different locations. However, being vehicles, such trucks could not always remain in a specific location for an extended period of time and had limited space for equipment and tire storage. In addition, as vehicles, such trucks often had high operating costs due to fuel consumption and maintenance.
As a result, there is a need in the art for a station that enables tire servicing and optional tire sales with an easy-to-maintain, re-locatable structure which requires minimal infrastructure investment.